Beautiful day, clear skies, light breeze and NO FISH . Worked the Island, Narrows, Santa Cruz and Johnson bay with reaction baits and worms at various depths. Hit one little smallmouth in Johnson. Made the rounds and talked with some of the other boats on the water and was a little bit relieved that I was not the only one catching nothing. Tufffff fishing for most. I'll probably bypass next weekend as the annual Cachuma Trout derby is kicking off and there will be a thousand boats on the water. Will check back on the next trip in a couple of weeks.

Anybody fished Santa Margarita in the past couple of weeks? If so I could sure use a report before I make that drive.

Tight lines

Tight Lines

i'm considering lopez or margarita for saturday,any reccomendations? i hate fishing the weekends anywere but thats the only day off i have this week.cachuma was a consideration before reading this post,thanks for the 411.if you ever have extra room for a partner please let me know,i always feel theres something to learn from each fishermen we get to fish with,willing to pay gas/gate fees..no bed fish by the way? weird ,its hot as blazes these days.

Hey Brian, I was out at Lopez last Monday, weather was a bit wierd with a mix of down pours and HEAVY wind...we were fishing in Kickboats under the bridge by the entrance and I managed a couple of 2 lbers on the drop shot. I havn't been out to Margarita lately, but it should be getting better with this weather warming up. If I am not working Sat. I will head there. By the way, if ya all want to catch a shiat Load of Spots make the drive to Naci, last Friday, I fished the River2Sea Yabbie all over the rocky shore lines and it was none stop. One downer to the trip, The park has raised the daily entrance fee from $7 to $15....that sucks, but the fishing is well worth it until the pleasure boaters take over the lake....Can you say Night fishin!

Lack of bed fish didn't really surprise me. My guess is the unstable water temp. Lake average was 58 deg with some spots in the 60 deg range. We were stable at 62 deg about three weeks back, but the last weather system took the temp down five points. It has come up 2.5 deg in five days. If we hold this pattern, I would expect the fish to start moving shallow in consistent numbers within the next three weeks. I have fish to mount this weekend, so i'll be working on that as opposed to fishing actually fishing myself. Gotta keep the customers happy.

Tight lines.

Tight Lines

Are you by chance the gentleman who owns a taxidermy shop in santa maria?

Nope. I had a small shop in Santa Ynez (Dream Catcher Fish Mounts), but I pretty much shut that down and currently do mounts for close friends, family and some old steady customers. With a full time job and the business (when it was in full swing), I had little time to fish myself. I found myself working in the shop on my days off just to keep on top of everything. That was unacceptable and life changes had to be made. Doctors orders: Fish more, work less equals reduced stress.

Tight Lines